Only ten?? Dude I played that game so much in the first week my ds died. Permanently. Now that school’s back I just play during world history and geometry with a lvl. 100 Gyarados named Mr. Fish. You know, the one you get as a magikarp from that dude on the marvelous bridge.

On DS…? Oh, my. I am old.
…
Erhm, in my day, poke-mans were black and white, and there were only 150 of em, cause Mew is cheating, and missingno is just a lost Kangaskahn, and that’s the way we liked it!
…
Now where’s my walker?

I used to play those. Now I’ve beaten them I have Red, Blue, Yellow, Silver, Gold, and Crystal sealed in a glass trophy case in my room. It even has a plaque! I love pokemon. I beat every trainer, caught everything, leveled everything to 100, and beat all the story. All without any hacks of any kind.

In the broadway musical he was Ash’s dad, in the games he’s Silver’s (the red-haired thug in g/s) In the anime he just boxes chanseys and cliff dives with aerodactyls and runs through the desert in his underwear and shit like that.

You misread that. The comment stated that the anime “had” disregard for logic, but then corrected itself as “has”, because it is still ongoing and the anime physics are still involved. The 14 seasons was just a related but separate comment of disbelief that it IS still running.

Don’t forget that the first nine seasons were localized by 4kids, and the company that took over from them, The Pokemon Company International, worked alongside 4kids for the first five seasons.

Some may call me a sensationalist. I like to think that we have only ourselves to blame for allowing it. (Look up Underbelly’s exposé on the aforementioned localization butchers for a lark, if you want.)

I came in here just to say “Hey, looking good with the black here there, Sten.”
Then I read “In the broadway musical he was Ash’s dad”.
Oh hahaha, Oh Coelasquid, you say the craziest thin– OH MY GOD WHAT.

I can’t even tell what’s more shocking, that this thing came to pass or that I never heard of it before. I need to rest for a moment, I feel dizzy…

In the remakes of Gold and Silver for the DS, there was a mystery gift download from Gamestop for a Celebi.
This Celebi unlocked a whole cutscene and battle where it took you back in time and you saw Giovanni leave his young son behind.

:’3 My very first thought upon seeing the names Black and White, at the same time as spazzing about “NEW GAMES!” of course, was “OH GOD THERE SHOULD BE GRAY<3"

… However, I have since come to hope for an alternative, despite gray being my favorite color. :'3 I want to see…. Pokemon Harmony~ :”D Black AND White, because (1) Reshiram and Zekrom were said to once be a single Pokemon, and while I’m sure Kyurem will still get an increased role in the manner of Giratina, Kyurem is also said to be what’s left of the original form and so-on; and (2) …. N’s last name is Harmonia, which means a Pokemon Harmony game would probably expand on him further. :’3 And I love that socially awkward painfully idealistic bastard<3

Giovanni was a real villain, man – capture Pokemon, use them as tools, not sentient cock fighters, and extend respect to no motherfucker. N is the Pokemon world’s version of Peta, and I didn’t like him, not once, in the whole story. Or the black haired rival… or the blonde one.

Or any of the NPCs in general.

I beat Black in about three days (and got it on release day), but I have been told that I approach Japanese RPGs with the clinical precision of a surgeon, so that’s not entirely shocking. Gold/HeartGold was my favourite, though, and I judge all Pokemans against it – Black didn’t measure up. The cities were cool, though.

I have to agree. Not only was Giovanni a manly villain, he had a badass name that pretty much YELLED mafia(or in this case Rocket)-involvement. I thought it was cool that Black and White tried to explore ethics etc. in the pokemon world, but anti-slavers being the BAD guys? That makes no sense. Bring back the Rockets!!

… I somehow get a feeling you don’t read very thoroughly in your games. The ACTUAL anti-slavery people, such as N, were rather explicitly stated to be good. N was an anti-hero, not a villain. The majority of the organization just used that as a front, though.

It also explored the (fairly criticized and questioned in real life by critics) fact that Pokemon training does not equate to slavery, although with ‘bad’ trainers it can. It’s like keeping pets, though. A stray dog with little to no human interaction is just a dog; one with a loving family will be better well-off, better fed, and often smarter at least by human standards; meanwhile, one that is neglected or abused can fare far worse than one just left to fend for itself on the streets or in the wild, ending up in horrible health and/or becoming violent. BW brought more attention to this for multiple reasons. Thus, while Wild Pokemon are great, there are as many or more good trainers who bring out their Pokemon’s full potential in more than just combat as there are those who misuse them. As such, the slavery claim on such a broad scale was unfounded, which was why the Player Character was justified in opposing Plasma.

In the end, of course, BOTH sides were pretty justified. Personally, I kept screaming at N to let me help him find BAD trainers and revoke THEIR right to train while encouraging the good ones. :”3 WHY DO NPCs NEVER COMPROMISE WITH ME? *shot*

Giovanni was -the- Pokemon villain. All villains after (Save perhaps Cyrus) were just bleh. I give Cyrus credit because he states it quite flatly that he doesn’t care, he wants to remake the world by himself and be a god.

That ruthlessness I can associate with villains. Not N going “Pokemon are enslaved, and you’re just helping them be slaves.” I also got the notion he was the sort that liked to sip frappucinos and listen to Neutral Milk Hotel then yell that I “didn’t understand anything.”

The plot just felt like one big political strawman show to me. I’m not too fond of PETA myself, but I’m not about to go about writing a story that basically centers around them ruining the world because they don’t like that I enjoy animal flesh lightly seared over burning dead tree chunks.

N wasn’t really the villain, though—Ghetsis was! iirc Ghetsis wanted dominion and actually didn’t give a shit about the Pokemon condition. Nor did he care about N beyond manipulating him from childhood, to be a tool for said future dominion. Where did he even GET N, did he kidnap him? Ghetsis was fucked up.

Grinding is optional, I find. I mean, besides right after catching or breeding a new one for your team. My save files usually end up at about 90 hours, and I think maybe 30 minutes of that was grinding. Which I did while ‘trapped’ on TV Tropes, so I probably didn’t even need that much. You just need to keep your team’s levels even, and use the Lucky Egg item. I know it’s in Gen V and IV.

At PAX in a week, we are running an entire Pokemon League once again. This time, Team Rocket has ascended power as the elite four, Giovanni is the champion, and he is running for mayor of Seattle. Anyone that is going should bring Black/White and a team of six and try to win our VERY awesome badges.

Sorry about the advertising, but the comic reminded me of my duty as a loyal Rocket and Gym Leader. Our Giovanni is exactly like this.

Giovanni was really something different. He wasn’t an environmentalist villain wanting to make the world better with floods or drought, nor was he the overly psychotic type wanting to remake the universe. All he wanted was to control his own mafia-level organization, one that sought out tools and used them for their own gain, whether they be humans or Pokemon alike.
I miss you too Giovanni, if only because in beating you, there was no need to feel sorry or sympathetic. I didn’t crush some zealot’s dreams of making the world better, I merely ended the plans of an evil organization who’s sole purpose was manipulating others for their own gain.

See, Giovanni was a genius because he could come up with a valid reason to steal pokemon, and he had better ideas, and he came up with the name team rocket, which should’ve stayed in the game even in the later versions like black.

Hm, if Team Rocket is still hanging around in the anime does that mean that Gen 6 will be taking place over all 5 regions and the main point is that Team Rocket now influences much of the pokemon world’s businesses and attractions? I would not mind seeing this

I’m afraid I have to disagree with alot of people here. I never saw Giovanni as any major threat (the anime had a lot to do with that). Teams Magma/Aqua were threats, so where the guys from Diamond and pearl, Team Rocket’s long exposure ont he anime has turned them into nothing more than a joke, embodied by two nincompoops who can’t even steal 1 pikachu.

If anything, they were even more of a joke in gold & silver, where their grand action of evil concluded with the taking over of a radio station, only to dispear once some kids defeated them (this time for good).

Oh sure, Team Plasma is something of a step back after the last two teams in terms of menace, but I liked how manipulative Ghetsis was, and how the game was framed as a battle between Legendary pokemon.

I dunno, Team Magma/Aqua were thugs in bandanas, Team Plasma was the animuu knights Pokemon version of the people with clipboards in front of Trader Joes who harass me for my credit card number so they can save the seals or whatever, and I don’t even remember the guy who came between them. Team Rocket was a Mafia.

I can understand the whole mafia thing, and Giovanni is a pretty manly looing guy, but i’m sorry, Team Rocket has been completely ruined by the anime. I don’t think i’ll ever see them as a viable threat. Team Magma/Aqua almost destroyed the entire Hoenn region, Team Plasma almost turned their boss into a god, Giovanni…ran the Viridian gym.

Sorry, I may rank Rocket in the same league as Plasma, But not above the other two.

If memory serves, they got back in through wheeling and dealing and maybe a little crying and pleading and bootlicking. (Maybe more than a little.)

Honestly, I liked the episodes where the Rocket Trio did something other than waste their time trying to catch (and successfully contain) a base-evolution static dogmouse. Finding out about James’ family was interesting, and the episodes where they worked with the Brat Brigade showed they were rather competent, as long as they weren’t up against Status Quo.

I’ll admit, I like that they’re trying to Make TR into a threat, but I need to see more before I can graduate them into serious villain status (and it’s true, Team Rocket were Joke villains for a LONG time). But I will give them a chance, and I do like what I see in that video, so I have some hope for them.

The thing about Giovanni was that he was much more of a low-tone villain than the rest. All the organization leaders that came after him relied on the power of legendary Pokemon, and with the exception of N, who wasn’t really villain material, it all backfired on their plans.

Archie and Max realized that they really shouldn’t have been fucking with weather too late. The destruction that occurred as a result was completely out of their control. That doesn’t make them by themselves dangerous or effective in any matter.

Cyrus, on the other hand, wanted the destruction so hey, he gets points there. But on the other hand, his reliance on the Red Chain backfired when one of the Pokemon he used to make it, Mesprit, breaks his hold. Or, in the case of Platinum, get cockblocked by a third legendary. Course, he’s an emotionless git with an equally uninteresting conclusion, so I couldn’t really care too much about him.

Giovanni, on the other hand, didn’t rely on legendary Pokemon. No legendary bullshit. No grand delusion of destroying the world or making political statements or saving the world by destroying it with weather I don’t know Maxie and Archie were pretty fucking stupid. Just running a criminal enterprise, stealing rare Pokemon, corporate takeovers, obtaining game-breaking Pokeballs, ya know, just regular everyday stuff.

Giovanni disbanded Team Rocket after the events of Red / Blue. Yet in Gold / Silver Team Rocket reforms in an effort to find him again, so he can lead them. Can’t be anyone else, has to be Giovanni. That’s charisma. That’s leadership. That’s badass.

Giovanni had pride and class. Also, he was totally a better boss than all the others. The only one who comes close to Giovanni in terms of badass-itude is ol’ Ghetsisburg, and dude had to rely on his abused son because he wasn’t man enough to get shit done himself.

As for the anime… I haven’t watched it in a long time and I tend to separate the game version and anime version of the Rockets anyhow.

Well at least team rocket is back in fore in best wishes anime, Jessie and James no longer get blown away, they’ve got jetpacks and are competent at completing their missions and you see more of their boss

‘fraid I must disagree. Never found a smidge of care for Giovanni as a kid, and can’t seem to do so even now. If nothing else, N is memorable, because the whole game is mostly about him – Team Rocket was kind of a side thought, a bit of “well, while I’m here, might as well beat these dumbnuts into the ground”.

I mostly remember Giovanni because he had his face in some of the best cards of the TCG, to be honest.

Ahhhh…Giovanni…now HE was a villain! HE had plans. HE wasn’t afraid to do what was necessary to silence upstarts. Ruthless, cold, efficient. Damn it, he made pokemon FUN. Seriously, who DIDN’T love rampaging through Silph Co. with a team of your favorite pokemon hard asses, fantasizing about being a Big Damn Hero when you kick the conference room door in and paddle Giovanni’s ass after his evil monologue…in the new games, (Hoenn and on) I just feel silly…Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald I’m fighting Green Peace for fuck’s sake…they wanna increase the land or the ocean so more pokemon can live…there’s no common sense behind their actions, they’re just crazy.

Man, that’s a pretty pimp-looking Giovanni. Seriously, anyone going up to a guy who looks like that, while carrying a clipboard is just asking for trouble.

While it might offset his credentials as a genuine threat and a super-manly man, I quite liked Giovanni packing in his criminal aspirations after his final defeat in the first game and choosing to concentrate on studying Pokémon from there on out.

I miss the classics. :(
Nothing beats the classics. (Besides, I had to hold off playing Black for sooooo long while I got used to the really stupid ideas behind the new pokemon. I mean, seriously. Who came up with the ice-cream cone one? And why hasn’t (s)he been beaten with a stick yet?)

See what I dont get when people discredit Ghetis as a villain, is Giovanni got himself and whole organization taken down by one kid. It took the combined forces of several gym leaders, the elite four, and the main character to bring down Ghetis.

To me that was more of a sign that the Black/white protagonists were babies than a sign that Ghestis was in any way intimidating. I don’t need magical Fire-Emblem-Meets-Peta cults, honestly, I’ve never been a fan of jazzing pokemon up with all that legendary magical god occult stuff. There’s enough in the world they could be fleshing out that’s not a new creation story with a dumbass cult attached to it in every game.

Or legendaries with more junk in the trunk than even Sir Mixalot could handle.

Actually, as someone who never really watched the show (and instead put about 200 hours into Ruby/Emerald. My hideout was legit.) could someone please explain why Mew is no longer the origin of all Pokemon anymore? Did Arceus pull a God and Mew is the pokemon version of Jesus or something?

P.S. If ever I am harassed by my friends into cosplaying for something, I will be slicking my hair back, throwing on a cashmere sweater and my black Armani suit, then slapping a giant red R on the left side. ‘Course now I’ll probably have to add a taser to the ensemble.

That’s the first I’ve heard of Bob Ross and Boss Hogg! I can give B&W credit for that, at least. What turned me off of B&W though was the PETA clone and the Pokemon themselves. I’ve probably seen maybe four that I like, a lot I’m neutral on, and some that I absolutely hate.

AH MAN so much yes. One can make a pretty strong debate out of which is worse between Shadow Pokemon and just killing them, but Cipher was definitely at least a powerful candidate if not the ultimate evil force.

:’3 I RP on a board with a pretty Colo/XD-based plot, so I may have become a bit biased towards them, but Orre really did have just the greatest feel to it and we NEED a Gen5 game set there.

With the good-intentioned King N and the radical extremist Team Plasma that you kick the crap out of, what we need next is a set of completely evil Gym Leaders and/or Elite Four and/or Champion that you only fight in an official setting.

On another note, what Giovanni needed in the time travel event of HGSS (which I have yet to do, unfortunately, no event celebi) was a full team of exceedingly high level pokés. So that you know that if you don’t stop him here and now, like Celebi says to, your past self will be absolutely creamed.

Hoo hoo hoo! I remember playing Pokemon Blue…just a few weeks ago.
I still have a fully functioning Gameboy Color and Pokemon Blue, so I can still play it and remember the good ol’ days when Pokemon were simple, and they weren’t extremely ridiculous.
And as for this comic… It made me giggle like no tomorrow.

Okay, everyone knows that Team Rocket won the bad-A award. I mean, they are the freaking Mafia!

However, I still find Team Plasma to be my favorite because they touched the untouchable joke that’s been on every Pokemon player’s mind since 1995 AD, that Pokemon is literally Micheal Vick. Team Plasma compared Pokemon battles to slavery and rang deeply with the players for such a novel thing.

Team Rocket may be the coolest, but Team Plasma was the only Team I ever initially thought was right. Team Rocket is the only absolutely level-headed Team in Pokemon (steal Pokemon, make money, do women), but Team Plasma was the only Team to have a goal I saw as noble.

dude you need to watch the honest trailer for Pokémon yellow it touches on turning hapless animals into killing machines and trapping them in tiny prison balls and forcing them to repeat the process on their own brothers and sisters